2 fleets don't seem so bad. I remember when AHII first came out that 2 fleets created such low FRs that it was completely impossible for me. Over time HT and Pyro et al have tweaked things on their end and I've tweaked things on my end that it pretty well takes 4 fleets to bog me to unplayable. Puffy ack hits aren't even as bad.
So yes, there was specific thought put into having the fleet sail to a point then having 2 TF elements split off to their designated targets. The main fleet should stay intact and relatively safe until it starts splitting up.
Now the puffy ack itself makes prolonged dogfighting over it too risky. Which, when you think about it, is sorta reasonable in a scenario atmosphere.
As far as the ease in which it takes to sink a fleet. That's what cap's job is. Intercept. And until the fleet is in position to invade, there should be plenty of cap. It's once the fleet is in position and the attack flights start poring in that it becomes more dangerous.
But 5" gunners are as deadly and accurate as they've ever been.
And are all the B-24s shot down at this time? How many fighters are still dealing with them and their escort (or even the fighter sweeps)?
So there's room for give and take.
Perhaps there are still some players suffereing massive FR hits. I'm not running a high end machine by today's standards.
My suggestions are:
- Run at a reduced resolution and maximize monitor refresh rates. Mine is 800x600 @ a refresh rate of 100.
- Reduce in game texture setting to 256.
- pre-load art to either pc memory or video card (which ever supports the most memory).
- When dealing with pure air to air combat, reduce range to middle or short.
I've found, though, that even with higher settings, the tweaks Pyro's done during the series of patches has made a vast improvement in my frame-rate. Again, I know it's not universal but for me it got better.
ATI 9600 256 meg vid
AMD XP 2000+ clocked @ 1.67 (factory default)
512 meg DDR SDRAM